Speaking to BBC
Newsnight, Nick Hardwick urged the government to take action,
telling the programme that he saw prisoners living in
“deplorable conditions” in some jails.

The comments come following a new
report from the Howard League for Penal Reform (HLPR),
showing that the number of prison officers in the UK has fallen
by 30 percent since 2011.

The report also shows that the number of suicides in prison has
dramatically increased by 40 percent since last year, and that
prisons across the country are struggling to deal with
overcrowding.

"We are seeing a lot more prisons that are not meeting
acceptable standards across a range of things we look at. And I
go to most of these inspections and I see with my own eyes a
deterioration,” Hardwick said.

Hardwick also said that it was “not acceptable” for UK prisons to
have such a high rate of suicides.

“I think they are an indication of wider problems in the
Prison Service, an indication of a prison system under growing
pressure,” he said.

However, some have blamed the government’s austerity measures as
the root cause of prisons struggling to cope.

Chief executive of the HLPR Frances Crook said that prisons were
being pushed to “breaking point” and that the situation
was “beyond crisis.”

"I am absolutely sure that lack of staff [due to] cuts in
prison officer numbers are contributing to increased violence,
people being locked up for longer, and as a consequence, the
highest death rate we have ever had in prisons," she said.

The UK has one of the highest rates of incarceration in Western
Europe.

Currently, more than 80,000 people are behind bars, and according
to official government figures, each prisoner costs the UK
taxpayer nearly £40,000 per year.